Alumni Updates Summer 2017

Markos Kounalakis’ (Bosch V) weekly syndicated foreign affairs column is now being published by McClatchy News, which means his columns are available in all McClatchy newspapers and wherever the Tribune News Service distributes its content. Markos continues to work as a Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. The other big family news is that his wife, Eleni Kounalakis, is running to be California’s next Lieutenant Governor. Here is her website: https://www.eleniforca.com/ Markos invites anyone interested in finding out more about her campaign to send him an email.

Peter Laufer (Bosch V) just finished the manuscript for his book Dreaming in Turtle: Timeless Allure, Illicit Markets, and Imminent Extinction to be published by St. Martin’s Press in 2018. Of course, there’s a Germany piece! Here’s a tease: The earliest turtle-esque reptile yet discovered – the ur-turtle that most matches its contemporary relatives – is Proganochelys quenstedti, a Triassic fellow who lived in Germany south of Stuttgart give or take 210 million years ago as did kin on the other side of our world in what now is Thailand.

Ron Bee (Bosch IV) directed the 2017 Hansen Summer Institute on Leadership and International Cooperation at the University of San Diego School of Leadership for the first three weeks of July. Inspired by the Bosch program, this marks the 10-year anniversary of the program which brings 20 students from different war-torn countries and places them with 5 Americans (ages 20-25) to teach them negotiation, mediation, conflict resolution and social entrepreneurship skills. Ron worked with Cultural Vistas to put this year’s Hansen Fellows together with a U.S. State Department young leader group from Austria. Rumor has it that the event took place at a brewery and Ron welcomed their Austrian counterparts auf Deutsch with a number of Austrian idioms! Ron has also been named a 2018 Weber Honors College Research Fellow at San Diego State University where he will work on his next book on the future of nuclear weapons. Stay tuned!

Ana Ramic (Bosch XXXIII) joined Atlantik-Brücke in Berlin at the beginning of July as their Stakeholder and Outreach Manager. Ana is part of the most recent Bosch cohort to finish, where she worked at Arte in Strasbourg for five months creating a new series of shows, which aired in early June, followed by 5 months with the government affairs team at the Microsoft Berlin office. Prior to that, Ana worked for five years in Chicago, at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, and for the last two years there as the director of the Chicago Forum on Global Cities.

Rebecca Ernest (Bosch XXVII) and Esdras Silva were married in a surprise (for the guests) wedding ceremony on June 2, 2017. Tammy Gibbs (also Bosch XXVII) performed the wedding in Washington, DC. Mark Pfundstein, who was also in Bosch XXVII attended.

Rebecca and Esdras will be moving to Tbilisi, Georgia at the end of September.

Tammy Gibbs, Rebecca Ernest & Mark Pfundstein (all Bosch XXVII)

This past year, Henry A. J. Ramos (Bosch VIII) reconnected with all things German through visits with his German wife Claudia’s family in Switzerland, a tour of the Wende Museum in his hometown of Los Angeles, a Harvard class reunion with longtime German friend Frank Mueller (who introduced Henry to the Bosch Fellowship Program), and a cherished recent visit to Vermont with Claudia where they visited Christy Hagemann, widow of the late, great Tom Hagemann (Henry’s dearest friend from the Bosch years), who very sadly passed in a bicycle accident in 2015. Also during this past year, Claudia and Henry celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary. He also continues to paint and otherwise engage in his passion for visual art and politics. In June, Henry curated a very successful and widely discussed original exhibit on California Latino immigration art and issues. And, as in recent years, he continues to write op-eds on the Huffington Post digital platform. Henry is also currently writing a book called Democracy & The New American Economy in association with the University of Houston. He also serves on the boards of important nonprofit U.S.-based advocacy groups, like the Harvard Journal of Hispanic Policy, the Women’s Foundation of California, and the Nonprofit Finance Fund.

Henry at Wende Museum, Culver City, CA

Henry with Claudia Lenschen Ramos and Christy Hagemann in Vermont

Claudia Lenschen-Ramos with her parents, his beloved in-laws, Walter & Hanne Lenschen (originally from Kassel, Germany and now living in Lausanne, Switzerland)

Henry with his Harvard Kennedy School classmate and Bosch Program advocate, Frank Mueller

Garrick Long (Bosch XXXII) recently began a new job as the Director of International Relations at CARE, an international nonprofit based in Atlanta, GA which supports over 1000 poverty-fighting development and humanitarian aid projects world-wide. Garrick works on strengthening CARE’s bi/multilateral relations, build its IR strategy, and he serves as the foreign policy advisor to CARE’s president, Michelle Nunn.

Kyle Cline (Bosch XXIX) has taken a new position with the National Association of Counties (NACo) as Regional Development Manager. In this role, Kyle manages the U.S. Communities government cooperative purchasing program founded by NACo. He serves the eastern part of the U.S. and is responsible for developing and managing relationships with state affiliate partners and program sponsors in support of the program. He continues to be based and live in Indiana with his wife Kristina and their two children, Anya (6) and Henry (4).

In the spring Sandi Phinney York (Bosch XXIII) was promoted to Education and Employment Manager at Community Action of Skagit County (in NW Washington State). As she delves further into local and federal education and workforce development policies, she continues to be influenced by her Bosch year in which she spent time learning about education and language policies and integration practices in Germany and around the continent. Sandi is also the proud and nervous mother of a newly-5-year-old kiddo about to start Kindergarten!

Sarah Hale (Bosch XXX) will marry Keith Smith in Alexandria, Virginia on September 9th. The couple both work in Washington, Sarah as COO at the American Action Forum and Keith as Senior VP of public affairs and mobilization at the National Association of Manufacturers. They will live in Old Town Alexandria with Ella, Keith’s Akita mix (i.e., Sarah’s new step-dog-daughter). Sarah’s quest to develop Keith’s affinity for Bavarian Tracht, Obatzda, and Kaffee & Kuchen continues in earnest.

After five years at American Friends of Bucerius, Melis Tusiray (Bosch XXVIII) has left to join the family office of a private investor in New York City.

Ted Rebholz (Bosch XIX), his wife and daughter (Emily, 6) moved from Oakland, CA to Baltimore, MD at the beginning of this year. Ted’s company (Temescal Wellness) is a multi-state, vertically-integrated cannabis company, serving patients and adult-use customers in NH, MA and MD.

Following the fellowship, Sarah Kimmerle (Bosch XXXIII) accepted a position with the Berlin-based non-profit Active Philanthropy. As Director of Strategic Development, Sarah works with venture philanthropists across Europe to help them efficiently apply their resources for lasting and strategic impact.

In July, Carolynn (Leaman) Milheim (Bosch XIII) took on an adventure traveling to the UNESCO Heritage city of Quito, Ecuador and diving in the Galapagos Islands (first-time diver!) and stayed at the National Geographic Eco Hotel – Finch Bay Lodge, for which she wrote an article on eco-tourism. This trip helped her also visit all countries beginning with “E” except Eritrea, and marked the 173rd and 174th country she has experienced. Many of the former East block countries she has visited were during her Bosch XIII year.

Vivian Rachael joined Annie Mark-Westfall’s (Bosch XXXI) family this summer! Vivi is the 5th Bosch XXXI baby to rock this onesie, in a sign of her early introduction to Boschies and networking. Annie is on German maternity leave in Berlin, pausing from her role as government liaison for the Wildlife Conservation Society. Her better/cooler half (according to Annie!), Michael Westfall, has joined the company Berlin Craft Beer Experience, providing tours and tastings. Once they get through this newborn stage, Annie and Michael look forward to preparing some more alumni events around the important transatlantic beer relationship.

On August 16, NYU IR MA Professor Colette Mazzucelli (Bosch IX) hosted the U.S. Department of State’s International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) India Delegation, including simultaneous Urdu interpreters, during an afternoon Working Session on the Washington Square Campus to exchange best practices regarding challenges facing pluralist democracies.

Earlier on August 16, Colette also welcomed fellow Bosch alumnus Adam Hunter (Bosch XX) and Global Diplomacy Lab member Nicola Forster to NYU New York for a phone conference with Chris Fowler, North America Chapter Head of the BMW Foundation Responsible Leaders Network, to discuss a pilot strategic initiative in education to be introduced in Professor Mazzucelli’s fall 2017 Conflict Resolution seminar.

Colette also recently published an article with American College of Greece Professors Anna Visvizi and Miltiades Demetrios Lytras, “Irregular migratory flows: Towards an ICTs’ enabled integrated framework for resilient urban systems,” in the Journal of Science and Technology Policy Management, Volume 8, Number 2, June 2017, pp. 227-42, http://www.emeraldinsight.com/toc/jstpm/8/2

Paul Glader (Bosch XXVIII) has been named the David Laventhol / Newsday visiting professor at Columbia Journalism School in the Spring of 2018, teaching the capstone business journalism course for the M.A. in business program.

Paul was also named director of the business reporting program of the Dow Jones News Fund, which means he selects roughly 30 top young business journalism students each year for a paid summer internship at leading business news organizations. He runs a week-long training program for the students at NYU each May.